Reader: "'Hipster' is another word for U.S. culture's creative class"

"Fifteen Things That Hipsters
Have Ruined," Patricia Calhoun,
November 14

From Hip to Zip

"Hipster" is another word for U.S. culture's creative class. I'm a member of it, and we're not ruining anything. Cool stuff in cool space for cool people. You guys sound like you're joining that anti-left-disguised-as-anti-what-I-don't-know cultural stealth campaign. Disguised Republican talking points or something. Replace the word "hipster" with "artist" (same thing). How would that article read?

Kelly Lemieux

Denver

A true artist would actually create something that would be considered highly innovative and groundbreaking. Hipster subculture, on the other hand, has become very much an orthodoxy in its own right. Rather than truly "going against the grain" like the early punk movement of the late '70s, today's hipster invasion is more concerned with actually trying to fit in with the other "cool kids." They become very predictable in their behavior, and the lack of true innovation just demonstrates how conformist these dweebs are.

Craig Maybell

Posted on Facebook

Hipster is the new mainstream. Denver in ten years will be like every other major city. Just a glob of townhomes and chain restaurants.

Tyler Custer

Denver

All these hipsters coming here have no idea what Denver is all about! They weren't here in the '80s when Sloan's Lake was considered the ghetto...long before all the yuppies moved in! (Most of whom are from California.)

Dustin Bova

Posted on Facebook

Enjoyed your article on ruined dives.

You missed the two best joints: The Riviera, aka the Glendale Country Club, replete with the credit manager, Adolf Scarf and $.80 longnecks; and Soapy Smith's Eagle Bar, home of the seven-page menu of proprietary shots — and the city's largest stuffed elk head, as good as any dusty taxidermy at the Buckhorn Exchange.
I miss them greatly, but I still have my liver. And driver's license.

John Steiner
Golden

I think another thing hipsters have ruined in this great city is rent prices. Really enjoyed the article; keep the hipster-bashing alive.

Andrew Litchford

Denver

Colfax by Capitol Hill used to be a smorgasbord of weirdos, trannys, crackheads and bum fights. Now it's coffee shops and bars.

Thank you so much for writing "Fifteen Things Hipsters Have Ruined." Might I add a few more?

The music scene: It used to be five bucks to go see some garage band like Death Cab or DeVotchKa, and now it's near $60 for a ticket.

Food: Being a vegetarian was about standing up for the ethical treatment of animals or for health reasons, etc. Now everyone and their mother doesn't eat meat even though they grew up on a cattle farm in the Midwest or were born and bred on happy meals. Tofu and seitan are on the food bar at Whole Foods for $8.49 a pound, for goodness sake, and gone are the goods — aka meat.

Smoking: Camels were okay for a while; now it's American Spirits, and prices are hovering at $6.50 a pack. Of course, it's only cool to smoke "at night."

Education: It used to be that dropping out of school was okay to do art, take community-college courses in horticulture etc. Now everyone has a masters in Theology or Urban Planning, Homesteading, etc.

Lastly, fashion: the Western snap-button shirt. For the love of g-d, please leave those to the real ranchers and cowboys. And do shave and use deodorant when you get off your bike.

Name withheld on request

Hipsters are a product of the boomers. Like Ben and Jerry's, they started off interesting and with good intention, but ended up being sellouts.

Matt Morava

Posted on Facebook

I am sorry, Ms. Calhoun! You are certainly not a "hipster" by any means! I certainly understand why you wrote this article. You are the "older" person complaining about younger generations. Seeing as how you have been the editor of Westword since 1977, maybe you have the earned the right to complain about younger people and how your palette is different, but you should rant in a different venue rather than the paper to whom your demographic is, this younger generation. A nursing home on the East Coast would be better. I just don't get people complaining about businesses making money!

Renee Huseman

Posted on Facebook

Editor's note:Find many, many more comments following the online version of "From Hip to Zip" at westword.com. And for an update on Denver's hipster status — we're no longer the coolest city in the country! — see page 11.

"Blue in Orange," Melanie Asmar, November 7

Pros and Cons

Fair treatment is a relative term here. Are we forgetting that Willie Clark is housed with a bunch of other convicted cons? He should be treated fairly, comparatively. Thank God the general public doesn't make these decisions. Barbaric species.

Peter William Goodwin

Posted on Facebook

All I can say is that Colorado prisons are full of Broncos fans...but what comes around goes around. That's karma.

Miguel Munoz

Posted on Facebook

Believe you me, there are a lot of innocent people behind bars. I have no clue if this guy is innocent. People lie all the time, witnesses are pushed and coaxed by cops and prosecutors. And when the lying-ass people come forward and admit to lying, it takes years and years to get the innocent people out. For every motherfucker out there on the run, there sits an innocent person behind bars.

J Birch

Posted on Facebook

No sympathy for a murderer. His family knows where he is and that he's alive. Darrent Williams's family can only visit his grave. Solitary confinement is right on!

Chris Heller

Posted on Facebook

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